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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Chap. ._.\3>£\ 

Shelf Y\ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/addresstograduatOOmess 



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AN 



ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED TO THE, 



Graduates of Brown University ', 



AT THE 



COMMENCEMENT, 



SEPTEMBER 5th, 1810. 



-y 



By ASA MESSER, D. D. 

THE PRESIDENT. 



PUBLISHED At tHE REQUEST OF THE CLASS. 



ca PROVIDENCE: 

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE RHODE-ISLAND AMERICAN. 



Dunham & Hawkins, Printers. 






* 



b 



Though you, young gentlemen, are now finishing 
your collegiate course, you are not, I hope, yet finish- 
ing your literary course. Notwithstanding the re- 
spectable progress you have already made, there is 
still, you must be sensible, a long way between you 
and the top of the hill of science. Should you stop 
where you now are, you would resemble those who 
put the hand to the plough and look back. Should you 
never make any farther progress, the progress you 
have already made would engender reproach rather 
than applause. Reproach, you very well know, is apt 
enough to follow those who reach not the general ex- 
pectation ; and it is the general expectation that those 
who have had liberal advantages should also have libe- 
ral attainments. But liberal attainments always sug- 
gest persevering exertion. If you possess them now, 
you cannot, without this, possess them long. Like 
the water in Tantalus' cup, your treasures of know- 
ledge, unless often replenished, will soon waste away. 
In an entire neglect of study, no man can long remain 



4 

even in statu quo. A Newton, a Locke, a Burke, 
a La Place must, in this case, soon begin to fall 
from their envied elevation. Whether affected, there- 
fore, by the hope of rising high, or by the fear of sink- 
ing low in the estimation of the world, you should, at 
any rate, devote much of your future time to the com- 
pletion of the literary course you have now begun. 

A moral character, j^owever, stands high above a 
literary. Knowledge, indeed, combined with guilt, 
will always give to guilt itself a blacker hue. To the 
very worst imaginable image of man, to the one ex- 
hibiting him as similar as possible to the very Prince 
of the dungeon below, a head the most informed is as 
essential as a heart the most malignant. Let your 
other attainments be ever so respectable, they can never 
become a substitute for moral principle : they can 
never give you the rank which this will give you in 
the eye of the world. Wholly destitute of moral prin- 
ciple, you would, indeed, be wholly unworthy the 
esteem, the confidence and friendship of every man on 
earth ; and, without these, what on earth can you pos- 
sibly discover, which is worthy a single exertion ? — 
Were you to fix your attention exclusively on the 
objects of the earth ; were you, without any regard to 
another world, to strive to secure the greatest possible 
treasure in this ; were you to feel, what God forbid 
you ever should feel, responsible only to yourselves 
and to your fellow- men, the voice of reason would still 
direct you to follow the path of truth, of justice and 



benevolence ; to cherish, indeed, that moral character* 
which is fair, unsullied, irreproachable. 

Though this would evidently be the voice of reason, 
I must still remind you that, in such a case, men 
would not be apt to follow it. David Humes are 
seldom found in the ranks of infidelity. Infidels in 
principle are ready to become profligates in practice. 
Affected lather by the fear or fche love of God, nor by 
the hopes or fears of a future retribution, men are 
ready to think that " the end will sanctify the means ;" 
and to say, " let us eat, and drink ;" let us curse, and 
swear ; let us lie, and steal ; let us, at all events, grati- 
fy our passions and our appetites. — Religion, young 
gentlemen, religion is the great support of morality ; 
and this consideration alone should induce you ever to 
revere and to follow the principles of religion. Can 
you, indeed, once suspect the correctness of the prin- 
ciples which are essential to the preservation among 
men of truth, of peace, of order, of justice, of sobriety, 
of beneficence ; of principles as essential to the wel- 
fare of nations, of families and individuals, as light and 
heat and rain are to the progress of vegetation ? — But 
the correctness of these principles does not depend 
solely on this consideration. Can you even imagine 
that a watch can exist without a maker, or a ship with- 
out a builder? Can you in any case allow that a man 
has made himself, or that a world has sprung out of 
nothing ? Yet these are the very absurdities and con- 
tradictions, which all must virtually adopt, who deny 



the being, the power and the wisdom of God. You 
must, therefore, accept the most important principles, 
the very ground- work of all religion ; or you must re- 
ject the most important principles, the very ground- 
work of all reasoning. You must acknowledge either 
that there is a God, or that nothing and something, 
reason and madness, black and white, ten and one are 
the very same. # ^ 

Can you make yourselves believe that the tongue of 
man can change the very laws of nature ? can cure 
the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb? can stop 
the wind, the plague, the storm, the flood ? can raise 
the dead ? Can you make yourselves believe that the 
eye of man can look through the veil which separates 
the present and the future time, and discern with ac- 
curacy the production of thousands and millions of 
events, depending, perhaps a thousand years to come, 
on the voluntary exercises of the soul of man ? Can 
you make yourselves believe that it was in the power 
of any man, at the time of Homer, or Virgil, or 
even of Milton, to specify the events which are this 
day occurring in Europe, or America ; or which are 
this moment occurring in this town, in this house, on 
that stage, in this pulpit ? Yet such is only a part of the 
absurd things virtually adopted by all who reject the 
religion generally received in this country, the religion 
of the blessed Immanuel. Never give any counte- 
nance, then, to the insinuation that this religion befits 
only the weak, the vulgar, the credulous, the ignorant ! 



It would be not less difficult to reconcile such an 
insinuation with a statement of facts, than with the 
deductions of reason. For a number of centuries, 
have not the talents, the genius, the learning of the 
civilized world stood principally on the side of this re- 
ligion ? Has not this been the case with the most cele- 
brated philosophers, astronomers, poets, orators, histo- 
rians, mathematicians ? those resplendent suns in the 
literary heavens which have poured such a blaze of 
light on the eighteenth century, and given it such a 
lustre above the twelfth ? In what corner of the world 
can you find a single library, I will not say a single 
book, which is worthy your notice, and which was not 
principally written by men bearing the christian name? 

The original settlement of our own country, and 
especially of New- England, must be ascribed to the 
indefatigable exertions of enterprising, conscientious 
christians ; and the subsequent cultivation and pros-' 
perky of it must be ascribed to similar exertions of 
similar men. To them must we look for the origin 
and the progress of all our schools, all our colleges, all 
our social libraries, and literary societies. And are not 
these the very stamina of our civil privileges ? These 
precious privileges evidently rest on that elective prin- 
ciple which pervades all our civil establishments ; and 
will this principle itself be worth any thing at all to a 
people destitute of the means of general information ? 
Where can these means be furnished but in our lite- 
rary institutions ? Only let these be abolished; only 



let our schools, and colleges, and all their appendages 
be once abolished, and the whole land, covered with 
the mantle of ignorance, would soon resemble those 
wretched lands, where the people have no voice at all, 
either in the election of rulers, or the enaction of laws ; 
where a few families, a few individuals, an aspiring 
villain, perhaps a raving madman, or a worthless fool 
holds in his hand the destinies of the nation ! On the 
side, therefore, of the christian religion we may place 
that consummate wisdom which devised and establish- 
ed even the system of civil policy, which so admirably 
distinguishes us among the nations of the earth. If 
then you would become the associates of the greatest, 
the wisest, as well as the best men, who ever have ex- 
isted, or who now exist either in the old, or the new, 
and I might say, either in the present, or the future 
world, you should become the associates of the chris- 
tian family ; you should become the advocates of the 
christian religion. 

I must, however, remind you, that coercion will 
never enable you to promote this divine religion. To 
force a man to become religious would be as difficult 
as to force him to become intelligent, or sympathetick, 
or forgiving. The christian religion must be embraced 
either not at all, or with a ready mind. — Good will to 
men is a primary principle of this religion ; and can 
good will to men be promoted by the persecution, or the 
slaughter of them ? Can the benevolence of the gospel 
feed itself on the malignity of a crusade ? Young gen- 



9 

tlemen, our holy religion will not allow you to harm, 
or to hate even the worst infidels in the world, even the 
worst enemies either of man, or of God himself. It 
will rather require you to love them, and to bless them, 
and to treat them as you wish them to treat you. — It 
would hence be easy to show, that this religion will not 
allow you to make your own a measure for the faith or 
practice of your christian brethren ; and I exhort you 
never to feel, or think, or act as though God had given 
to you, or to any man, a monopoly of conscience, or 
a spirit of infallibility. 

To those who possess the requisite qualifications the 
office of a preacher of the gospel will exhibit very many 
allurements. What characters can be more dignified 
than the ambassadours of Christ, than the workers 
together with Go d in the salvation of sinners ? What 
employment can be more weighty, or benevolent, than 
to proclaim the glorious gospel of the blessed God ; 
than to show to guilty men the way to everlasting life ; 
than to bring to a perishing world the unsearchable 
riches of the covenant of grace ? — Should objects like 
these engross your attention ; should the glory of Go d 
and the welfare of men govern your hearts ; should the 
gospel seem to you to be worthy of all acceptation, 
and should you seem to yourselves to be called of God 
as was Aaron, I should rejoice to see you devoting 
your lives to this blessed work ; and I would implore 
the God of grace to give you strength equal to your 
day.- — Should you, however, fix your hearts on objects 



10 

opposite to these ; on the fame, the wealth, the power, 
the wisdom, the grandeur, the pleasure of the world, 
may God in mercy keep you from waiting at the altar. 
I would, in any case, exhort you not to lay up your 
treasure in the present world. What but shadows and 
bubbles are all the treasures of the present world ? If 
you could possess them, you might not enjoy them. 
Though standing on the pinnacle of human greatness, 
you might envy the condition of a common beggar. 
A President of the United States, a King of England, 
an Emperour of France, a ruler of the whole world 
might, indeed, be the most wretched man the world 
itself contains. O how worthless, how contemptible 
will all the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory 
of them seem to a man on a bed of pain, in the gate of 
death, at the bar of God ! — Whether preachers, or 
lawyers, or physicians, or farmers, or merchants, or 
mechanicks, you will still be needy, feeble, dying crea- 
tures. On no one day will you be certain of living till 
another. At noon encircled with all the lures of life, 
you may at night be encircled with all the pangs of 
death. Your home is in another world. There lies your 
great concern. There you must live forever. There, 
young gentlemen, lay up your treasure. — To that other 
world the closing scene of this day is especially fitted 
to turn your attention. Before the clock shall strike 
again I shall have finished this address ; and probably 
I shall never again address you as a class, until the 
heavens and the earth shall be no more. Before the 



11 

sun shall rise again you will be scattered abroad ; and 
probably you will all never meet again, until you meet, 
with an assembled world, at the judgment of the great 
day. May the God of heaven grant that you may 
there meet as friends, as brothers, as the ransomed of 
the Lord, those who have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. 



CATALOGUE 

OF THE 

GRADUATES OF BROWN UNIVERSITY, 

SEPTEMBER 5, 1810. 

DAVID AVERY, Mansfield, - - Con. 

ISAAC BAILEY, Ward, - - - Ms. 

WILLIAM BATES, - - - , - Wareham, - - Ms. 

ABEL CUSHING, Chesterfield, - Ms. 

COLLINS DARLING, - - - - Bellingham, - - Ms. 

APPLETON DOWNER, - - - Preston, - - - Con. 

SIMON R. GREENE, - - - - E. Greenwich, - R. I. 

PHILIP R. HOPKINS, - - - VN. Grantham, - N. H. 

HERVEY JENKS, Brookfield, - - Ms. 

DANIEL KENDRICK, - - - - Hollis, - - - N. H. 

CYRUS LOTHROP, Easton, - - - Ms. 

HENRY K. M c .CLINTOCK, - - Bristol, - - - R. I. ' 

MARTIN MOORE, Sterling, - - - Ms. 

WILLIAM READ, Easton, - - - Ms. 

DAVID READ, Easton, - - - Ms. 

CHARLES ROBY, Dunstable, - - Ms. 

GEORGE W. SPENCER, - - - E. Greenwich, - R. I. 

JOHN TAYLOR, ... - Providence, - R. I. 

FRANCIS D. WAIT, - - - - Charlestown, - Ms. 

DANIEL WHITING, .... Dover, - - - Ms. 









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